Athens Airport Passenger Throughput at Record 8.24 Million

Greece, and Athens in particular, hit a new record this summer according to data released by the Athens International Airport (AIA), the only international airport of the Greek capital.

July was a record-breaking month for passenger throughput that had an increase of 22 percent compared to July 2013, totaling an impressive 1.77 million passengers. AIA also said July was its best month for 2014, so far.

The increase in passenger traffic came from domestic (+21.9 percent) and international (+23.0 percent) passengers, alike. July’s domestic passenger traffic rose to 586,947 passengers, with international traffic increased to 1,185,556 passengers.

AIA saw a significant increase of 18.1 percent in total passenger throughput in the first seven months of 2014, to reach 8.24 million passengers at the end of July, 1.26 million passengers more compared to the corresponding period in 2013. International passenger throughput increased by 19.3 percent, while domestic passenger throughput rose by 15.9 percent.

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Airline passengers, tourists as drug smugglers - without knowing

Can you imagine traveling as a tourist from Lima Peru to Mexico on a LAN Airline flight with your suitcases full of drugs, but you did not know about it?

Can you imagine you as a major drug smuggler operate under the watchful eyes of currupt officials? Peru's counter-narcotics police broke up a ring that shipped cocaine from Lima's international airport to Mexico on commercial flights by swapping out unsuspecting passengers' luggage with identical suitcases.

The passengers' real bags would be put on later flights.

Peru in 2012 supplanted Colombia as the world's No. 1 cocaine producer, according to the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration

The arrest of eight employees at airport services companies through Wednesday followed the April and May detention of five police officers assigned to the airport, also for alleged cocaine smuggling.

The suspects worked for three different concessionaires at Jorge Chavez airport, including Transber SAC, which loads cargo on planes.

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